Hacker News Reader

Comment by tra3 | Hacker News Reader

That’s awesome. I was expecting a lament on how an amazing startup idea was stolen and monetized by someone else. Glad I’m wrong and the world is a little bit better.

View on HN

Same here. Came to say the same and to explain how i publicly share all my 'great' ideas publicly even though so many friends think I'm nuts in case someone 'steals it' and makes a successful startup from my idea. My answer: "Great for them. At least they had the determination and focus to follow through with bringing the idea to fruition when I couldn't."

People tend to overvalue ideas. I see this all the time in writing where people are worried someone will steal their great idea for a story. The truth of the matter is that it’s unlikely that you’ve come up with something truly new and in any event, ideas tend to breed and multiply. I will never write all the stories and novels that I have jotted down in my notebook before I die and there are more every day.

If an idea is any good, you generally have to fight tooth and nail to get anybody to listen to it, and put in a hundred times that to get anybody to understand it, and that again to act on it.

If you don't directly control how that happens they will implement it fundamentally wrongly.

But after it is finally implemented more or less correctly, everyone will agree that the idea was trivial and obvious, and they had already thought of it themselves, in exactly the form where they first encountered it, even if that is actually not quite right.

Victory has a hundred fathers, but defeat is an orphan.

On that note though, is there a way to protect your story if you want to pitch it to a publisher, or anywhere else ? Like a registry for story ideas ?

There's no IP protection for ideas for stories. Regardless, almost no fiction shop is going to agree to print a book on spec, just off a story pitch. Write the book first. Then you already have protection, in the form of copyright (which is automatic and doesn't require registration).

Not really, and it’s not a problem. Ideas for stories are abundant, the ability to turn them into finished books or scripts is much rarer.

Same. I'll often share relevant ideas in comments here and elsewhere in the hope that I inspire someone to go implement something I might like but will never find the time+organisation to get around to creating!

Hey me too, a little sunshine this morning :).

Exact same sentiment :)

Reply on news.ycombinator.com